Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Snakes and Ladders on Star Voice of India

Saritha enjoys Rani Mukherjee on her favorite show but is disappointed by the copious miming.

When Kuch Kuch Hota Hai released almost a decade ago, I went to see it for my favorite actress Kajol, and though I liked her acting, I left the theater wondering who the other girl was - the one who overshadowed the lead pair in a special appearance.

Later under a series of B-grade projects, she slipped into oblivion only to emerge later as a lead actress making her way into the privileged Chopra-Johar camps.

Last week’s VoI saw Miss Congeniality Rani Mukherjee spread the love, encourage contestants, sing with them (I’ll pretend she never did that), teach the judges how to maro a thumka, gift the contestants ‘Maa Saraswati ki murti’ and finally postpone the elimination to Saturday.

She came across as genuine and remained elegant while dissecting performances. The set, contestant’s costumes, judges jumping on and off stage – I was not sure if it was a competition or party - but I ain’t complaining.

If the singing had taken a back seat amidst all this hungama, it would have bothered me, but it was at its best. The extended duet round was entertaining with some very coordinated singing, and excellent choice of songs.

Changing costumes to go with the theme of the song was an added bonus – darji Dheeraj gets a pat on his shoulder for making everyone look good, especially the girls who looked smashing. And they all evolved as performers.

Toshi, Irfan and Harshit secured their places for few more weeks. Abhilasha and Abhaas - despite being the most surila of the lot - lacked the emotion to get a song right. Ishmeet with a melodious voice could turn out to be the dark horse of the competition and Priyani continues with her hit and miss formula. Still she teamed up with Abhilasha to score an ace with ‘Chalka’ from ‘Saathiya’.

The not so cool dude Shiney Ahuja turned up on Saturday to play a contrived (yawn) ‘Bhool Bhulaiya’ game with the judges asking them KG questions in KBC ishtyle. Judges decided to sing, rather mime, duets with the contestants and got the best out of them. The contestants, who by now have mastered the art of performing on the stage as per the channel/producers' demand, put in extra effort to lip sync well.

But Jatin forgot to mime much to his partner Abhaas’ embarrassment. Aadesh had his dancing shoes on from Jhalak Dikhhla Ja was more eager to jump around than pretend to sing and Abhijeet and Alka having done this before were probably thinking if they should charge the producer for this service. Shaan and Ishmeet’s rendition of ‘Jab se tere naina’ sounded beautiful making me like this song from ‘Saawariya’.

Miming for the Grand Finale has been the norm for many shows but VoI's miming rehearsal took place with six weeks still to go for the last round. This gave me the uncomfortable feeling that there are more snakes than ladders on this board

Star TV sure must raking in huge profits because they've extended this production company’s stay on prime time with VoI Little Champs scheduled to air after the current show comes to end.

All I want to sing now is “aur iss show mein kya rakha hai, mera hi sardard likha rakha hai”

..... no pressure at all, saritha as the sole flag bearer! u did a stand-up job as usual. aspi, captions is baar bhi nishaane peh - waah! not sure how u got fm that BB movie still to silk smitha, but it is a hoot :)

Agree with Anon that VOI is pretty much a lost cause but any more HR and i'll OD. If he's out of SRGMP, then perhaps VOI next time will be his grand revenge to show Zee how TRPs are won!

Rani M pretty much saved the show on friday. she came determined to spread sweetness and light and she did with a vengeance. It was the first time I've seen the mean and curmudgeonly judges transformed into fun people. If in turn they ended up fawning all over Rani, it seemed a small price to pay. In contrast, the next day Shiny was pretty much invisible - that BB game was trite and silly. Kinda impolitic of him to join the judges and diss other shows when the stars tend to do the rounds of them all.

A few random things that struck me: 1. What was that string like thingy dangling fm the back of Rani's kurta ? It looked very strange. 2. Sonam seems to have borrowed Rani's darji for her wardrobe - the same long billowing outfits. 3. The gift was a nice gesture but in't a saraswasti murti a somewhat un-PC gift given that the participants aren't all Hindu?

Saritha, brilliant as usual.I think I watch the show now mainly so that I can enjoy ur posts!!!U really make a terribly drab show interesting.And Aspi, am glad u r back to being very happy after a sad morning yday! It shows in ur captions!!

Now the shows r judge-swapping! It seems Pritam who was supposed to be the judge of Z Little Champs, was quickly offered a job at VOI;s Kids Champs, and he has accepted. Reminds me of cricketers like Mohd Yusuf scurrying from ICL to IPL.

M, do u consider Sonu Nigam hot?He is one of the judges alongwith Suresh Wadkar(ho doubts about him). The third was supposed to Pritam who was usurped by Star, I hope for ur sake that someone interesting makes it!!!!

Aspi,you gave me a fantastic idea for my profile pic.I've been thinking abt it for a while now.I'll go raid the mall for a red jhanda and get my picture taken in Sears....sheesh,Iam left with VoI jhanda lehrane ke liye....ha ha

They really mimed it? I wouldn't know because I skipped through last episode.

BTW, no comments about the awesome performance by those two girls? I thought they were simply amazing. In the last episode, Ishmit with 'Jab se Taire Naina' and 'Man Kyon Behka' were the only two performances which I saw and enjoyed.

Gifting the contestants was a touching gesture but putting the non-hindus in awkward situation is not nice.She needs to fire her secretary who has not done enough homework.

anu,

Sonu as a judge on SRGMP will be a welcome change.His journey has come a full circle from hosting the show to now judging the same-ofcourse it's lil champ.I hope to see him judge the main edition soon.

Be prepared for an overdose of Shahid this weekend.Was watching the news and saw him on previews of all three shows... as the guest on VOI,Nach Baliye as well as JDJ!

And hey,people r laughing over Aditya;s English accent. Aspi,I think u should write a blog on the English comments the judges make on these shows. I dont understand their need to impress people with their english.They speak hindi, we understand it.Why speak in English, and make such faux pas!

Saritha, theres some Telugu filmi news for u. Chiranjeevi;s daughter eloped today with a young student....all the news channels are flashing it.Details pampinchaanu!What was amusing was Star news which showed a clipping of a song from Dil where Amir and Madhuri sing 'Hum pyaar karne waale, duniya se na darnewale' and then showed a clipping of todays arya samaj wedding of the couple, with the song in the background.The papparazzi sure knows how to make things melodramatic!!

sidekick, Silk Smitha is my one my favorite characters in Indian cinema (I've never watched her in a movie but seeing her picture fills me with admiration and amusement). I had to find a way to put her on the blog.

To me the whole idea of judges "performing" along with the contestants seemed to fall flat. The judges looked stricken with autism dancing with two left legs.

I think Rani must have decided to teach them the basics towards the end, with some nifty hip moves and some arm swaying..pretty easy stuff. Except here she was dealing with seriously challenged people and that session to me was a bunch of laughs..I busted my gut rolling all over the floor.

The contestants in the top look like convicts on death row..looking seriously glum, waiting for the death by hanging.

The other idea could be like the 360 degree appraisal they are trying at our workplace..have the contestants sit at the judges place and have the judges sing and dance..Su Aspi Bhai, tame su lagech ?

Gees, I frankly do not enjoy this show at all..the drama here sux..Abhijeet luks like a joker wid de new mop of fake bristles he calls 'hair'....[im missing Himesh already..lol...i will only wtch dis show if he is the judge]...and Meg, please ask vishal-Shekhoo to be mentors on Lil champs...if u ever get to talk to dem...Nopes, I dont find Sonu hot...he still luks baccha...Neil Mukesh is soooo white skinned..luks like hez sufferin from leucoderma...never mind...The episode wid Saawariyan cast...mann dat sucked...RAnbir was jumpin aorund evrywhere like am extra horny munkey finally released to mate...

And Rani's gift wud have been more appropriate in Srgmp....Himesh wud have loved it...and btw, her new movie so damn weird...Laaga Chunri...Mann, after watching it I am considering escort services as a profession...rofl...so glossy, so much of money..high profile contacts..hmmmmm....and end of it all u get a high profile husband who doesnt mind it watsoever...absolutely a perfect career choice.

of course Ranbir would be hawny! he hasn't experienced The Megan yet..

and what's wrong with Neil having lighter skin? i don't know why ppl think its ok to say something like that but hell will break loose if someone says something like "eww Rani is gross, her skin is so dark.." i have had random auntyji's make snide comments like that to me.. LOL i hate the whole skin color talk about this one almost touched a nerve

Missed your thank you's...I had to go around the office seeing if I can locate Aspi. You never know!! did see someone suspiciously like him in the restroom, but that person spends whole days in the restroom (I fondly look at him as an advanced avatara of myself..maybe in the future I will occupy the next cubicle. Hey, I like restroom's they are so tranquiiil........). In Tam Land my favorite tamil phrase is restroom engai?

Gees, Megan, I guess I am the only 100% Shekhoo fan den..u seem to have loadsa options after Srgmp...lol...My comments on the skin color was due to my prefernce for normal color on guys...ehehe...and btw, Ranbir luks like a effin drunkard to me...and who's muzzamil???some oder munkey??

The girl in 'Sakhi' is Shalini,famous yesteryear child artiste,acted in only a couple of movies as a heroine before marrying a south actor.It's Madhavan's first movie.The original is,in fact,'Alai payuthe' in tamil.

We thought the plot of the movie was novel until a friend introduced us to his friends who actually married in a temple and went back to their homes to lead seperate lives.I dont know what happenend after college.

OMG SKD you're a riot! I almost choked on little slice of the kiwi fruit I was eating while reading your comment. LMAO @ gamchha and your description. Honestly, I love Salman! :o)Still LMAO.... reading that last comment...

Aspi, figure u need to watch a full length silk smitha flick --- and then blog on it. maybe manish can give u a recco. rexine radha --- seriously? the other names are pretty wild but rexine radha??? fm the looks of it we missed out on yr skool days, manish :)

saritha, i too love the saathiya soundtrack but i was less than impressed by the performances of humdum soniyo re and the title track. i felt the tempo was off on both but everyone one else seemed to love them. But then rani was the purveyor of positivity on the show and we didn't get any meaningful criticism! the girls did a g8 job with chalka re which did deserve the encore. i also liked ishmeet's jab se teri naina. all the new releases saawariya, OSO, johnny gaddar and no smoking are playing constantly on my MP3 player and some of it is starting to grow on me.

i still don't get the abhaas lurve --- the judges, SLB, now rani. so the kid is good, but all this praise is akin to javed akhtar's OTT comment that amit paul is the best thing since rafi and kishore!

anu g, tfs the news updates. luckily i will get just the one dose of shahid -- on VoI.

Hey Aspi, I could get some inside stories on this...I have some high profile contacts in the South Indian film industry...We shud have a separate column on Tollywodd, Kollywood and Aiyo..i think Mollywood..lol

it just me or anyone else out there who found ranbir kapoor in the promos a tad feminine(his gestures,i mean...he looks cute off screen)i hope the movie turns out ok and not like BLACK(i found the movie overrated with Amitabh at his hammy best or is it worst?and dependable rani)..but the promos dont look so appealing wit h the very obvious sets..seems the entire movie is on those bluey sets...UGH!

Apparently Saawariya is based on a foreign play called White Nights. I googled it, the story seems ok but yeah I'm not a big fan of Ranbir, yet. Emmm, the girl looks Ok, and the music, well it's ok too... Hope SLB manages to pull off this one. Why didn't he hire Ismail D. as a music director? I understand they had a tiff, but SLB-Ismail D kind of... went together?! you know what I mean

Saritha, how come u know so many languages?I remember u wrote a few words in Bengali too. As for the translation, Musing just said he is very happy to have seen u...and many thanks for the link! Hey i am sure with ur flair for languages, u would hav guessed this!So do u also know Gujarati?

And Saritha, dont worry about support for VOI. I do watch it ,and so do all the Mamis in my family. In fact they all used to watch only SGRGMP.When i returned from Chennai in the summer hols after a month of no tv(parents dont have a set top box, so u get only sun tv and the likes), I was getting re-addicted to the idiot box, and suddenly saw the audition episodes of Abhilasha,Toshi, Sumitra etc. They were fabulous then, and I told all of them to watch VOI!Itna to influence ab bhi hai, so they all r avid followers now!!!(I am known as one of the more diplomatic non-controversial people in the family!Its only on Drift that I often put my foot into my mouth, and then feel shocked at my own behaviour)).Now I am not fishing for compliments.Gosh, Himesh;s self-trumpetting seems to be addicting!! Well, in short, u r not the sole flag bearer, we r all there to support u!!!

VOI is gonna start lil champs too rite?the poor kids, someone save them from gajendra singh, he doesn't seem to be quite right these days.but they definitely got good judges. shreya ghoshal, kunal ganjawala and pritam. isn't it a bit ironic that shreya and kunal were finds from the *rival* show? lol

M, u liked Irfan? I thought u were not too impressed by skeleton-like-people(ref Kunal Kapoor).....just joking. Irfan was one of my favourites too cos he comes across as a very nice person(as u mentioned) and more importantly he is from Hyderabad!!!!Worse news for u...Toshi topped!!

The guy's name is Abhaas peeps. And Toshi is one of those guys who thinks they're good. I much preferred his bro Sharib. And Bonjyotsna. They were both better than Ujjaini and Aishwarya. Ujjaini and Aishwarya are coming across as fairly repulsive... and their CD is mostly remakes. Didn't they have something original? Also who looks after them, now that Gajendra's left the SRGMP brand to Zee?

Aspi, u seem to share a special bond with Silk Smitha.In one of the earlier posts, u suddenly spoke of her and resurrected her out of the past, surprising many of us. And today I read that her last movie which never saw the day of light, is being released soon!!!Uncanny!!!!